About a third of children aged two to 15 in England are overweight or obese.
Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Children of obese parents are more likely to be obese than other children, an NHS survey has found.

The Health Survey for England 2017, an annual report conducted by NHS Digital on the state of the nation’s health, surveyed 8,000 adults and 2,000 children about topics including obesity, smoking and drinking.

For the first time, the report analysed the link between parent and child weight. It found that 28% of children of an obese mother were also obese, compared with 8% of other children, while 24% of children of an obese father were obese, compared with 9% of other children. About half of parents (47% of mothers and 52% of fathers) of obese children thought their child was about the right weight.

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The survey found that 64% of UK adults – 67% of men and 62% of women – were overweight or obese. More men were overweight but not obese (40% against 31%) and more women were obese (30% against 27%). The survey found 2% of men and 5% of women were morbidly obese.

Approximately a third (30%) of children aged two to 15 in England were overweight or obese, with boys and girls equally likely to be so.

Dr Max Davie, an officer for health promotion for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), said the data linking obesity in parents to that of their children came as no surprise. “It’s a cycle of life that can have terrible consequences to the health of entire families for generations,” he said. “We need specialist weight management services for overweight and obese families, supporting parents to lose weight before conception, and we need services in place to continue this support throughout pregnancy and childhood.”

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Prof Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s prevention expert, said the figures were incredibly worrying “as obese children are around five times more likely to be obese adults and overweight adults have an increased risk of 13 different types of cancer.

“The government needs to help end this cycle of obesity by restricting junk food marketing promotions and introducing calorie labelling so families can make the healthier choice, the easier choice,” she said.

The report covers adults aged 16 and over, and children aged 0 to 15, living in private households in England. Researchers conducted interviews and many of these were followed by a visit from a nurse who took measurements and samples. In total, 7,997 adults and 1,985 children were interviewed and 5,196 adults and 1,195 children received a visit from a nurse.

The researchers continued to see a steady decline in the proportion of adults who smoke cigarettes, which has fallen from 27% in 1993 to 17% in 2017. The trend for e-cigarettes has continued, with 6% of all adults now using them; 15% of cigarette smokers use e-cigarettes, while 38% of smokers have never used them.

The proportion of children aged eight to 15 who have smoked at some point has decreased, from 19% in 1997 to 5% in 2017. The proportion of children in that age group who had ever consumed a whole alcoholic drink, as opposed to just a sip, fell from 45% in 2003 to 14% in 2017.

The proportion of adults drinking “at increased or higher risk of harm” (more than 14 units a week) fell between 2011 and 2017 from 34% to 28% of men and from 18% to 14% of women.

The report looked at five risk factors in people’s lifestyles – cigarette smoking, drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week, eating fewer than five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, being obese and having low levels of physical activity.

There were only 13% of adults with no risk factors in their lifestyle and 36% with only one risk but 32% of adults had two risk factors and 19% had three or more. Men were more likely (54%) than women (47%) to have two or more risk factors.

The West Midlands had the highest proportion of adults with two or more risk factors (58%), while London had the lowest (43%). Adults in the lowest-income households were twice as likely as those in the highest-income households to have three or more risk factors (26% compared with 13%).

The proportion of adults with multiple risk factors was highest among white adults: 53% of white people aged 25 to 64 had two or more risk factors, compared with 48% of black adults and 38% of Asian adults.